Bunny the 'talking' dog's owner says the skepticism from the scientific community hurts the most
Bunny the 'talking' dog's owner says the skepticism from the scientific community hurts the most
Alexis Devine's Shepadoodle went viral as Bunny the Talking Dog after the canine learned to communicate with buttons. But many scientists don't buy it.
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The scientific community is meant to be skeptical. If we wholeheartedly adopted every claim an instagrammer made online, we’d all be dead of covid or tide pod poisoning.
The only evidence we see of Bunny’s knowledge is what’s presented on their social media accounts. As noted in the article by a scientist, we are more likely to latch on to the one time a button press has meaning and disregard the nine that don’t. All we see of Bunny is the wins, so it’s really not scientific evidence of intelligence.
I will admit that what Bunny presents is compelling stuff, but there is no scientific rigour involved with the claims.
I’ve seen other dogs with buttons whose owners claim intelligence, but their buttons are for things like ‘walk’, ‘food’, ‘play’, and ‘love’. The dog could press any of those buttons and expect to receive a good outcome. Of course it’s going to feel like communication when the dog hits “play”, and is happy when you play with it.
If it requires a combination of an especially clever dog and a human that is willing to give an especially large amount of attention, then it may be tough to get enough controlled and studied instances of it happening in order for it to meet rigorous scientific standards. If this is the case, then I wonder if some sort of a setup that involves a private AI dog tutor that can give endless attention and is able to expertly watch and read the animal would be able to eventually help the dog make significant progress with a large enoughbl number of dogs to really have evidence one way or the other.